ProtoLens

ProtoLens is a open-source tool for dynamic visualization of TLM-Transactions in SystemC-based Virtual Prototypes. Integrated with the open-source RISC-V VP++ (since commit b573b1b), ProtoLens provides an interactive web app, which displays transaction flow of Virtual Prototypes in real-time.

A BibTex entry to cite the paper presenting ProtoLens, Manfred Schlägl, Jonas Reichhardt, and Daniel Große. ProtoLens: Dynamic Transaction Visualization in Virtual Prototypes. Forum on Specification and Design Languages (FDL), 2025., can be found in the last section.

Installation/Setup

Prerequisites

• rustc >= 1.80.0

• npm >= 10.8.2

• Node >= 22.17.1

• gdbgui (optional)

Rust

1. Install cargo and rustc via rustup

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

2. Add cargo to path

. ~/.cargo/env 

npm / node

1. Download and install nvm in PATH

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh | bash

\. "$HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh"

2. Install node

nvm install 22

3. Verify installation

node -v 		# Should print "v22.18.0"
nvm current 	# Should print "v22.18.0"
npm -v 			# Should print "10.9.3

gdbgui

Debugger frontend for gdb. Other frontends can be used but integration is only provided for gdbgui.

Dependecies

• gdb (gnu debugger)
• Python 3.4 or higher
• pip version 8 or higher
• pipx (highly recommended)

1. Install dependencies

sudo apt install gdb python3

2. Install pipx

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m userpath append ~/.local/bin

3. Install gdbgui

pipx install gdbgui

4. start gdbgui

gdbgui

RISC-V VP++

Follow the instructions here.

Setup

Host configuration is done by editing the PLS/appsettings.json file. Following parameters have to be changed to enable the use of ProtoLens:

• bin_dir: Path to the sw folder of the riscv-vp-plusplus repository
• vp_dir: Path to the vp/build/bin folder of the riscv-vp-plusplus repository

Optional:

• To integrate GUI-VP Kit for bootable Linux images the gui_vp_kit_dir has to contain the path to the GUI-VP Kit repository

{
  "serv_opt": {
    "address": "127.0.0.1",
    "port": 8080,
    "static_dir": "./dist"
  },
  "vp_opt": {
    "vp_debug_port": 5005,
    "vp_trace_port": 5006
  },
  "gdb_opt": {
    "gdbproxy_port": 5007,
    "gdbgui_port": 5000,
    "gdb_bin": "path/to/riscv32-unknown-elf-gdb",
    "gdbgui": "gdbgui"
  },
  "bin_dir": "path/to/riscv-vp-plusplus/sw",
  "vp_dir": "path/to/riscv-vp-plusplus/vp/build/bin",
  "gui_vp_kit_dir": "path/to/GUI-VP_Kit",
  "gui_vp_args": "--tun-device tun10"
}

ProtoLens: Dynamic Transaction Visualization in Virtual Prototypes

@inproceedings{SRG:2025,
  author = {Manfred Schl{\"{a}}gl and Jonas Reichhardt and Daniel Gro{\ss}e},
  title = {{ProtoLens:} Dynamic Transaction Visualization in Virtual Prototypes},
  booktitle = {Forum on Specification and Design Languages (FDL)},
  year = 2025,
  url = {https://ics.jku.at/files/2025FDL_ProtoLens.pdf}
}